478 



KOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Note XI. Page 822. 



Besides these properties, the Beech is well known to make excellent 

 fuel. The mast, also, is nutritive to animals, especially to swine and 

 deer ; and an oil is expressed from it, (as Dr Yule informs us,) which, 

 if properly manufactured, and the seeds freed from the husk, is of ex- 

 cellent quality, and nearly equal to oil of Olives. — See Mem. Caledon. 

 Hort. Soc. vol. ii. p. 285. There is, however, one purpose to which the 

 leaves of this tree are most usefully applied (as I have myself seen in 

 other countries, and as is noticed by Evelyn,) viz., mattresses for beds ; 

 and I wish that the practice were better known in Britain. From my 

 own experience at this moment, I can recommend these mattresses, as 

 greatly more elastic, cleanly, and more durable than those of straw, if 

 the leaves be gathered before frost affects them. Taking this property 

 of the Beech, therefore, together with the fulness of its shade, it may be 

 truly said of it, 



" Silva domus, cuhilia frondes.'" 

 Note XII. Page 329. 



Observing that one of the great excellencies of the Beech lay in ac- 

 commodating itself to soils that were very light, as well as to such as were 

 stiff and cold, I conceived the idea, about four-and-forty years since, of 

 bringing it in aid of the thorn, by mixing them together in field hedges, 

 and thus uniting the closeness of the one with the prickly quality of 

 the other. In these sterile soils, I tried the proportion of three Beeches 

 to a thorn, which admirably succeeded ; and I was so much pleased with 

 the rich winter shelter produced by the mixture, that I gradually 

 adopted it for fences on all soils, however rich. On those of tolerable 

 quality, the thorn of course was allowed to predominate, putting two 

 and even three to a Beech. Thus, in good lands, the thorn became the 

 staple of the hedge, and the Beech where it was poor ; whether poverty 

 arose from a deficiency or a superabundance of moisture. This practice 

 I commenced in 1780 and 1781, when nothing of the kind had been 

 attempted elsewhere, as far as I know ; and have continued it since, 

 over a pretty extensive surface. At present I have between twenty and 

 thirty miles of hedges so executed in very various soils, and all in a state 

 of greater vigour than I am persuaded could have been obtained by the 

 Quick alone. 



With agriculturists, the great problem to be solved respecting fences 

 appears to be, how to raise a hedge on miserably poor lands, under the 

 value of 6s, and 8s. per acre, where there is no stone to enclose them. 



